Cold
Luz’s POV
Luz’s hands shook as scrubbed at the jacket. The first thing she did when she’d reached her house after walking home was google how to get the… various stains out of the jacket. They didn’t have any hydrogen peroxide so she’d grabbed dish soap and a cloth and brought them in the bathroom, delicately placing the jacket into the tub before setting up the sink.
Once she had the supplies ready she went to the kitchen and used the landline to call Eda’s cell phone to let her know that she wouldn’t be needing a ride home. Eda had answered right away and sounded relieved to hear from her, Luz could only understand about half of what the woman was saying. Her head still felt off but it was more like her thoughts were tunneling rather than any head injury. Eda said something about her sister not letting her leave to go and find Luz and that Amity had said- Luz had hung up the phone the second the name Amity was comprehended.
Finally, for the last… she didn’t know how long, Luz had been hunched over the sink in the bathroom, trying desperately to dab out the stains with dish soap and cold water. She hadn’t worn the jacket during her walk back home and the parts of it that had been in the toilet had frozen to near solid but had thawed over the last several hours. Luz’s fingers were turning blue as she dabbed at one particularly deep stain of many. Her hands had been numb for a while so she wasn’t too bothered by it. None of the stains were coming out completely but she had to keep trying.
Luz felt weirdly hot but she was still shivering. She felt something rise up in her chest and coughed into her elbow. It splattered fresh red onto the white fabric. She’d nearly forgotten that she was still in her button down shirt. She didn’t feel right.
At one point she heard the front door open. Luz hadn’t heard a car come up the driveway but recognized the shuffled footsteps of her mother as she took off her shoes at the door. Her mother had taken a later shift so Luz wasn’t even sure what time it was but she knew that it was later than usual. She heard her mother’s voice call something out but couldn’t comprehend what was being said.
Her hands were stiff, stuck clutching the jacket and the cloth. Luz’s arms twitched as she debated whether she should keep going at the stain or stop and wait for her mom to inevitably find her in the bathroom. She didn’t think her fingers could release from their grips if she’d wanted them to.
Luz heard the footsteps come closer to the bathroom door. She hadn’t even closed it. Shaking, she kept dabbing at the fabric, staring down as if she could make the stain disappear by refusing to look at anything else.
She heard her mother’s voice again but still couldn’t make out the words. She stabbed at the stain. Cold water splashed onto the floor for what wasn’t the first time that night. Her eyes burned with tears. One of them had swollen nearly shut a while ago.
There was the voice again. Her mother sounded worried. Concerned. If Luz could only scrub a little harder.
“Luz!” There was a hand coming towards her face. Luz flinched, practically lunging backward and somehow ended up on the ground. When her eyes refocused her mother was kneeling down beside her. The expression on her face was a mixture of worry and determination.
“Luz.” Her voice was softer this time, not wanting to incite further panic in Luz, but it had a sense of urgency to it. The jacket had fallen to the ground but her mother didn’t spare it a glance. Very slowly, the woman reached out her hand, her fingers grazed Luz’s cheek and the girl winced as they brushed over a bruise. “Who did this to you?”